Graham R (Ed.) - Anarchism - A Documentary History of Libertarian Ideas Volume One - From Anarchy to Anarchism (300 CE to 1939)

Anarchism In Latin America /323
schools teeming with very well-paid erudite teachers had been thrown up in all our
townships only to find their classrooms empty because the children, under instructions
from their parents, refuse to attend for education. One would also think that
the Indians are refusing to follow the morally edifying example set by the ruling
classes or have no scruples about nailing to a cross all who peddle high-minded and
unselfish notions. The Indian gets what he is given: fanaticism and fire-water.
So, what do we mean by civilization Morality illumines industry and art, learning
and science like a beacon at the top ofa great pyramid. Not theological morality,
which looks for some posthumous sanction, but rather human morality which looks
fo r no sanction and would look no fu rther than the Earth . The greatest accomplishment
of morality, fo r individuals and societies alike, consists of its having turned
man's strife with his neighbour into a mutual agreement to live. Where there is no
justice, mercy nor goodwill, civilization is nowhere to be found; where the "struggle
fo r existence" is enunciated as the rule of society, barbarism rules. What is the point
of amassing the learning of an Aristotle when one is a tiger at heart What matter the
artistic gifts of a Michelangelo when one has the heart of a swine Rather than going
around the world spreading the light of art or science, better to go around dispensing
the milk of human kindness. Societies where doing good has graduated from being
an obligation to being a habit and where the act of kindness has turned into an
instinctive impulse deserve the description highly civilized. Have Peru's rulers attained
that degree of morality Are they entitled to look upon the Indian as a creature
incapable of civilization
... As long as the Indian attends lessons in school or is educated through simply
rubbing shoulders with civilized fo lk, he acquires the same level of morality and culture
as the descendant of the Spaniard. We are forever rubbing shoulders with yellow-skinned
folk who dress, eat, live and think just like soft-spoken gentlemen from
Lima. We see Indians in parliaments, town councils, on the bench, in the universities
and athenaeums, where they seem to be no more venal and no more ignorant than
folk from other races. In the hurty-burly of national politics there is no way of sorting
out the blame and being able to state what damage was done by the mestizos, the
mulatos and the whites. There is such a mish-mash of blood and colouring, every individual
represents so many licit or illicit dalliances, that when faced by many a Peruvian
we would be baffled as to the contribution of the black man or yellow man to
their make-up: none deserves the description of pure-bred white man, even ifhe has
blue eyes and blond hair. ..
Some educationists (competing with the snake-oil salesmen) imagine that if a
man can name the tributaries of the Amazon and the average temperature in Berlin,